Deputy recovers missing child in traffic stop; suspect arrested

A traffic stop by a DeSoto Parish sheriff’s deputy has resulted in the recovery of a missing child and the arrest of the suspect on warrant for child stealing.

The deputy stopped a motor home traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 171 near Kickapoo, La., for an expired license plate.

During the traffic stop, the driver seemed extremely nervous and produced a North Dakota driver’s license that did not appear correct to the officer.

A warrant check found the man was a fugitive from Los Angeles, Calif., with an outstanding warrant for child stealing.

A follow-up search of the vehicle resulted in the location of a 2- year-old child, along with another driver’s license from California, a

large amount of cash and three firearms.

Upon contacting the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, officers learned that the suspect, identified as 32-year-old Jessie James Rebel of Castaic, Calf., is the biological father of the child.

Rebel reportedly disappeared with the child on Nov. 21, 2013, and has not had any contact with the child’s mother or any family members since. He gave no indication that he was leaving with the child or why.

Rebel had cashed out large sums of money from a bank account, obtained the motor home and had been traveling with the child since that date and living out of the motor home.

The child was placed with the Office of Child Services pending arrangements to return the child to the mother in California.

Rebel had been staying at an RV park in the Logansport, La., area for a few weeks prior to being stopped. He said he was heading to North Dakota, where he is originally from.

Rebel was booked on a fugitive warrant from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office for child stealing.